


Betrayal and Escape

by 20SomethingSuperHeroes



Series: Memoirs of a Jedi Apprentice [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Battle, Betrayal, Brutal Murder, Caves, Character Death, Clone Wars, Crash Landing, Death, Escape, Heartbreak, Hospitalization, Movie: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Order 66, Other, Post-Order 66, The Force, UFOs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 06:55:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13476105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/20SomethingSuperHeroes/pseuds/20SomethingSuperHeroes
Summary: There are rumors that the Clone Wars are coming to an end. For Ereh Saw Yzil, the ending is abrubt--and deadly.Excluding Chapter 1, 19 BBY, Concurrent with the events of Revenge of the Sith





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: The beginning of this work mentions some adventures of Phish Nish and Ereh Saw Yzil that I have not had the time to write yet.

A couple weeks after the Zondel 5 campaign, I saw Anakin Skywalker again. It was a surprise to see him at all, but after everything that had transpired on Dathyel for once I was glad to see him. 

It had been about seven months since Dathyel, in fact. Master Nish and I were leading a campaign out of Imbla. Skywalker happened to be on his way to Komaris. The Jedi Council--Master Kenobi, in fact--had asked him to check on Nish and I while he was en route. Phish and I greeted him at his starfighter in the hangar, I must have said hello to R2-D2 in passing. There was a formal troop inspection and then a campaign meeting with Commander Sid and our other commanders. 

He did ask me telepathically, if I had kept his secret. I told him yes, and I expected that to the end of the matter. However, Anakin wanted to talk with me privately. 

After the meeting, Anakin left with his droid to tune up his fighter in the hangar. He said he wanted to send a holo to Obi-wan. 

Master Nish wanted to discuss some things with Sid and the officers. I told him I was going to take a short break. 

“Very well,” he said. “Don’t be long.” I think he guessed what I was really up to. He was probably too proud of me for having gotten over my juvenile frustration with Anakin to realize what we were really up to.

Anakin was waiting for me outside the hangar. The terrain outside of our base on Imbla was rocky, and he and walked a short distance from the building and sat down on a boulder. He asked me about getting beaten up by General Grievous on Zondel 5. I didn’t bore him with the details but I shared enough to let him know that the Zondel campaign had shaken me.

“So how’ve you been?” I asked.

“I’ve been worse, I’ll admit,” he said. “You’re the first person I’ve ever admitted this to: I hate being without Padme. I miss her every single day. Sometimes I wish I was back on Dathyel with her. Oh--dancing with her! “ His face lit up at the thought. “That was the most amazing thing! You have no idea how much joy sharing that with her brought to me. You know, the last time Obi-wan and I were together, the funniest thing happened.”

“Oh really, what?” I asked him.

“We were on Vandos, and we’d stopped to spend the night at an inn in one of the towns. I was alone in the room, when suddenly I remembered some of the music from Dathyel. I just picked up a pillow from my bed and started dancing with it.”

“What? Are you serious?”

“I’m not kidding!” he said. “And then, this is the best part--Obi-wan walks in--yes, I know!”

I burst out laughing. He laughed with me, too.

“So Obi-wan walks in, and he’s like, ‘Anakin, what are you doing?’” He put his hands on his hips and looked rather stern.

“That’s Obi-wan to a T!” I said.

“And I was like, ‘Erm, nothing, Master.’ I was so embarrassed that he’d caught me! I almost died of fright!” 

“Good heavens, if Master Nish caught me doing something like that he’d hang me by my toes!” I said.

“He would, yes,” said Anakin. “I always thought Master Nish was such a stiff, even compared to Obi-Wan.” 

We let our laughter die out. He asked me a few sincere questions about how I felt the campaign was really going, and we talked about that for a minute. And then he got back around to the real purpose of our discussion.

“I just wanted to say to you,” Anakin said, “that I really appreciate what you did for me and Padme on Dathyel. I know it must have been hard, trying to deceive your master and Obi-wan like that, but you did well. And I am truly thankful that you are in my confidence now,” he said. “The way the Jedi Order is now days, you can’t--well, you can’t really count on everyone like you used to. No one’s secrets are safe anymore.”

“I know. How’s Padme doing?” I asked him.

“She’s doing fine,” he said. “A little stressed out, too. I think we’re all feeling it.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” I said. 

“I saw her a few weeks ago, I was on Coruscant for a night. Nothing fancy.”

“It doesn’t take much to keep you two happy, does it?”

“Nope,” he said, shaking his head with that goofy smile of his. “When you’re in a relationship like ours, Padme says, you get used to enjoying the small things together.” He sighed. “And I guess I’ve had to settle for that. You know, with the war and everything, I’m always on assignments for weeks, maybe months at a time. And Padme often has business with the Senate. I feel like we’re always fighting against...everything for time together.”

“Do you ever wonder that if the war was over, you two would have more time together?”

“I don’t get time to think of that much,” said Anakin. “But yes. That would be a nice change. We fell in love...we got married right when the war started. It’s always been something to deal with. And it hasn’t always been something we agreed on.”

“Yeah, well, a politician with her background, it can’t be easy,” I said. Padme was an outspoken pacifist. But Anakin had always been more vocally in favor of aggressive action in the war. “It must be nice to have someone in your life, that you can love. But wouldn’t trade places with you for a moment.”

“Yeah, being in love isn’t for everybody,” said Anakin. “Just for those who need each other. And there are more ways to love than just romance, too.” He patted me on the shoulder with his metal arm. “Well, hey, I’ve got to go. Thanks for talking to me.”

“Thank you, Anakin,” I said. “I really appreciate your willingness to confide in me. We can’t bear our burdens alone.”

“That’s what Master Nish says.”

“I know,” I said. “But I know that it’s true now.” 

I shrugged. I was ready for him to go, but he hugged me. It meant a lot, I guess, that much physical affection, coming from someone who didn’t really trust people. I hugged him back, sort of. It felt weird: like I said, I didn’t hug too many people back then.

Anakin returned to his fleet and I went back to leading my troops with Master Nish. That little conversation left me feeling good in a number of ways. I felt good, for starters, that I didn’t loathe him like I used to. Well, the truth was, he’d grown out of the obnoxious padawan he had been. But I could see for myself that he was actually a good person, someone who was actually pleasant to be around when you were on good terms with him. And our little chat had been confirmation to me, at least then, that what I had done for him and Padme on Dathyel had been the right thing. I could see the wisdom, now, from what Master Nish had always taught me, that once you consider the other person’s point of view, then there isn’t really anything to dislike about them. 

I must have caught Anakin on one of his good days. 

 

Clone Trooper CT-2419, alias Tweed, never fully recovered from his injury sustained during action on Zondel-5. He was in rehab at a clone medical facility on Azon for two months, and Nish and I paid him a visit while we were there to pick up other troopers who were ready to resume duty. The doctors had tried everything with him, but with some of these older clones there wasn’t much they could do.

“My leg’s just fine, really,” Tweed complained to us in his quarters. “I just can’t really run on it. They’re afraid I’d give out in the heat of battle, and they’re probably right. Imagine what they’d do with me, though? A decommissioned clone trooper. What am I good for, General?”

“There is talk in the Jedi Council that the war may actually be coming to an end,” said Phish. “The clones might be reassigned for peacekeeping duty in the reconquered territories. You maybe able to go back to active duty, so long as it didn’t mean actual combat.”

“That might work,” said Tweed. “Doctor Ziaal is also saying that I could qualify for training as an inspector. But really, me? Doing desk work?”

“You’ve always had a sharp mind, Tweed,” I said. “And you’re compassionate: maybe that’s the type of officer we’ll need when the fighting is over. Someone to work with the other troops.”

“You flatter me, commander,” he said, smirking. We wished him the best of luck and left. 

Looking back, he is one of the people I definitely should have hugged goodbye. I already knew I was most likely never going to see him again.


	2. Chapter 2

There really wasn’t any sign that the war would be winding down anytime soon, but it was in the air. I think some of it was people just wanted it to end. At least that was what I was feeling, after our meeting with the Jedi Council. They gave us an assignment to stop a Separatist incursion to the planet Shent. 

We were at the spaceport on Coruscant, waiting to leave on our transports, when I had an idle thought.

“Master Nish,” I said, “if you had to spend the rest of your life on just one planet in the Galaxy, where would you go?”

He gave me a look.

“What?”

“Yzil,” he said, “be careful what you wish for.”

That was probably the only thing that happened to me that remotely resembled a premonition. He didn’t know it was coming, necessarily. But he was always against me shooting my mouth off. 

It was while we were en route to Shent that we learned that General Grievous had attacked Coruscant and kidnapped the Chancellor. During our stay there we followed the news about that battle. The last news we heard from the Jedi Council was that Master Kenobi was going to Utapauu to find General Grievous and hopefully end the war once and for all.

Shent was a planet under the jurisdiction of Naboo. Queen Apailana had ordered Naboo’s Bravo Starfighter Squadron to assist our clone fighters in the space battle. Nish and I supervised the ground operations, but the Bravo Squadron pilots, including their Commander Kalie, would fly down to consult with us during lulls in the fighting. Shent had a green, rocky, treeless terrain, in the middle of which was a mining and quarrying center that the Separatists, running thin on resources, wanted to make use of. We set up our base camp in a valley lined with cliffs and caves a few miles from the big plant, and we fought the Separatist ground forces on top of a nearby rocky plateau, which we referred to as “Up Top.” 

We went “Up Top” to do battle early that afternoon. Our gunships dropped us on the plateau’s surface to get us to surround the advancing droid forces in a three-pronged attack: Nish had the center, I had the left, and Commander Sid was on the right. I met my master in the middle of the fight, and we deflected and diced the attacking droids together.

“Incoming! We got the big rollies!” shouted Captain Jace as he and his unit came retreating past us. 

“Hailfire droids! Move!” shouted Master Nish. I heard them coming long before they were in sight. Nish and I ran to the side to let them pass. The hailfire droids on their double wheels came crashing through, running over everything and everyone in sight. And then right behind them came the Separatist spider-tanks, their gigantic legs clicking.

“Lunger, they’re heading straight for the edge of the cliffs towards base camp!” Sid shouted into his com. “Stop them before they get down there!” He shouted sector coordinates. “Reggie, Esco, after them with the AT-RTs."

Down closer to the edge of the cliff, the hailfire droids met the fire of our tanks and cannons. One of our big guns was totaled when a big roller just rammed into it. One of them had its left wheel and central controls blown to pieces while the right wheel just kept rolling forward until it was also shot down. Two of the hailfire droids that survived the counterattack swerved before they reached the cliff. The Spider tanks, however, kept on crawling forward and shooting. 

Master Nish and I, away from the defense line, were fighting the Spider tanks one by one. We would jump on them and cut into their domes with our lightsabers, we sliced off their legs and made them trip. Our clones had a fun time attacking them with EMPs, laser machine guns, and our biggest, loudest blasters. But some of them edged around our heavy ground weapons and made their way to the edge of the cliff. The defense there was obliterated.

“There’s got to be another way to stop them!” Willie One-0 shouted over the comm.

“What do we do, General? The droids are getting through our lines?” Sid asked Nish.

Phish calmly made a hologram call. “Commander Kalie, what is the status with the Separatist spacecraft?”

“We have them under control, master Jedi. Their fighters have fallen back.”

“Can you bring a squadron of your starfighters down to the surface? The separatists are breaking through our line with heavy artillery.”

“Right away, sir. Kalie out.”

Commander Sid made a similar call to our clone starfighter squadron commander, Loop. He then ordered the gunship pilots to fly back to camp with whoever they could. Nish ordered everyone to chase the spider-tanks on foot and draw their attention from our front line. We led the clones in a heroic charge, swinging our lightsabers with the boys shouting death or glory behind us. 

Just your bloody, noisy, typically violent day on the battlefield during the Clone Wars.

The droids met us with their infantry before we could reach the front line. We had just taken a few moments to settle in for a firefight when the starfighters came swooping in overhead--ARC-170s, Naboo N-1s, a handful other varieties. The spider-tanks were crawling down the side of the cliff to our base camp, but the starfighters swooped over them and dropped explosives. A beautiful sight. I cheered with the clones as we shot down the last of the droid infantry and we turned back to the battlefield. A quick survey by clones on speeders and AT-RTs revealed that the droids were retreating, so after picking off their stragglers we started to gather up our wounded and return to camp down in the valley.  
Bravo Squadron Commander Kalie landed her fighter on the ground in our valley camp so she could confer with Nish and Sid and I. Kalie reported on the space battle, and Loop joined us on hologram. The conclusion we drew from our conference was that we had only temporarily beaten the Separatist forces; they had only fallen back to make repairs and get some new droids ready to go. Nish told Sid to order the scouts to go keep an eye on them and to have everyone else be ready for their next attack. Kalie had to go talk to some of her other pilots who were parked in the valley with us. 

I went to eat some rations with the troops. I ate with Captain Jace, Tweak, and Clyde, plus a few clones I had recently been acquainted with, Patch and Brim and Hardy. All we really had to eat were ration bars and canteens full of nutrient drinks, but we all got to sit down and relax, the clones took their helmets off. It was a warm day, a little humid, and that armor could get hot. Some of the clones were having the internal wiring systems tuned up so that the little fans inside would function. We reflected on the day’s fighting, on how the campaign was overall, compared it to previous battles. I didn’t do much of the talking, but I did have a short anecdote or two from working with Master Nish.

“Everyone to your stations, now!” Sid shouted from the center of the valley. “The clankers are back!” 

“Buckets on, men!” said Jace. The clones put on their helmets while I went to find Master Nish. Droid troopers and tanks appeared over the rim of the valley.

Nish was discarding his robe in a gunship. I put mine aside with his. “Are they back already?”

“Yes, I know that didn’t take very long,” said Nish. “We were fortunate to have any kind of a respite.” He then added, “I sense a disturbance in the Force. Stay close to me.”

Just him saying that made me uneasy, but I brushed the feeling aside. Probably the Separatists working to subvert our defenses. We pulled out our lightsabers and joined the fesh attack on the hill. The clones made short work of the droids, and the droids had only brought three spider tanks with them this time, which Nish and I handled personally with some assistance. I had Willie, Hardy, and Patch fighting with me.

“I’m really starting to like you new guys,” I said to them when we’d blown up our tank.

That business finished, Sid commanded the troopers to go back to our base and get ready to march Up Top again--the Separatists would be back soon.

Master Nish was feeling worried. While the clones were hurrying back to camp, he was walking slowly, and he had his mouth drawn down more than usual.

“What is it?” I asked him.

“I don’t know.” 

I shared with him my thought that the Droids could be planning something.

I watched as the other clone troopers reached the camp before we did, rushing to get more of their gear and weapons for the coming battle. I tried to spot the troopers I could recognize by helmet. Most of them were on their way up the hill aready.

“Where’s Sid?” I asked Nish.

“He may have gone to do something.” But he agreed that we should talk to Sid. 

I don’t remember anything unusual about the clone troopers or seeing anything come over them. I do remember we were walking right past where Commander Kalie had parked her N-1 Starfighter on the valley floor when we saw a group of clone troopers walking towards us. Sid was leading them. They were holding up their blasters and looking serious. But then again, it was the way the visors were built on their helmets, they always looked serious. 

I was about to open my mouth and say something to them when Nish turned me away hastily. I don’t remember if he grabbed me first or if I saw the clone trooper rifles turned on us before that.

“Yzil RUN!” he shouted. He let go of me, but he ran with me. Ahead of us was a cleft in the valley wall that lead into a cave. There is no way the clones shouldn’t have hit us, but we got out of there pretty quickly. Nish whipped his lightsaber out and he blocked some of the blaster shots himself as he ran. 

We made it into the cave. We kept running. The tunnel turned to one side. I was about to run farther when Nish collapsed behind me--he had taken a shot to the chest. And one to the back.

“Master!”

“Yzil--” He looked like he was trying to tell me something but couldn’t find the strength, he was still reeling from the impact of the blaster hits.

I picked him up with all the Force strength and adrenaline I could muster. I carried him a few hundred meters farther into the cave. I hauled him behind me through a cleft that was out of sight of the twists and turns of the hallway. I could hear the voices of clone troopers echoing behind us--they were coming. 

I laid down Nish on the ground. His breathing was ragged. He was looking away from me, at the tunnel we had just come through. The wound on his chest was bleeding--there were actually several blaster shots in his chest, at least three in his ribs. Another closer to his shoulder. His blood got all over me, I was a mess.

“Master, what’s happening? What’s going on?” He couldn’t speak. The shot must have punctured a lung. “Master, are you all right?”

He turned his head over at me. “Yzil...you must run, you must escape. That starfighter...get as far as you can, run and don’t look back.”

“How can I do such a thing? Master, no, I’m not leaving you here.” I leaned over him, I held his hand. “Can you tell me what’s happening?”

He took several breaths. “Yzil, do not disobey me. I will not ...do not die here.”

“Of course you won’t die here--”

“No I mean you. Don’t...die...he--eer...” Suddenly his hand went still in mine. He leaned his head back and his eyes rolled up too far.

“Master! Master!” I wrapped my other arm around him and I half-held, half-leaned over him. “Oh please don’t leave me. You’re all that I have. Master.” I was crying, I was crying so hard I couldn’t see, I collapsed on my master’s chest and cried, I hadn’t done that since I was a little girl, he never would have let me if he was alive.

But now he was dead.

I heard the echo of voices again in the cave. I stopped crying to listen. I heard their steps.

I slowly let go of Master Nish. Then I got to my feet. I hated that I had to just leave him there. But there was nowhere I could take him. And I couldn’t bring him with me. He wouldn’t want that.

The clones would be waiting for me outside. Waiting outside...to kill me. There had to be some mistake. They wouldn’t just do that. They were my friends.

Or were they?

My master had told me to run away from them. There was an empty starfighter waiting outside the cave walls. I’d have to steal it. And to get there I had to get past the clones who were searching for me in the cave. And they weren’t going to let me out. I would have to attack them. I would have to fight against the soldiers I had fought with just hours before.   
I may even have to kill them.

No, I won’t kill them, I told myself. I was determined to leave that cave alive. I was also determined that I wasn’t going to kill my own troopers, even if they were going to kill me.  
Some of them would simply have to get hurt.

I knew I was only kidding myself. The clone troopers had only one purpose: fight until they either killed or were killed. 

I took my lightsaber from off of my belt. I stepped over Master Nish’s body--Goodbye, Master--and I went down the side tunnel. It sounded like the troopers who had come down the main tunnel had already turned back. But I’d sent them searching in caves like these before. They wouldn’t have held back going through every cranny. Maybe the droids were giving them a tough time outside--how many of them had been pulled out of the main battle to kill us? I felt bad, thinking that the clones had to fight and die elsewhere to give me a chance to escape. But the fewer I had to fight, the better. 

Why were our own clone troopers out to get us?

I reached the main tunnel. Five troopers were walking back towards the cleft leading outside. They must have heard me coming, because they turned around.

I had my lightsaber on before they fired. I blocked their shots. Some of them I deflected at the clones--that was thick armor, and a deflected shot like that I hoped wouldn’t hurt them too badly. I came up running to them as they continued to fire at me. I chopped off the end of one of the blasters with my saber blade. Then I did a Force-push on one of the troopers and hit him against the cave wall. I kicked one of the clones that was still standing. A cut to the chest with the lightsaber for the third. The guy I had kicked came back up, so I cut his arm with the tip of my lightsaber. Then I went through the cave entrance. 

They weren’t hanging out right on the threshold of the cave. But they were coming up, a whole group of them, led by Sid and Willie. I saw three of them bring the portable laser cannon and set up the tripod between me and the N-1 fighter, and Tweak got behind the controls of the gun. I dropped as rapid laser blasts shot above me and punched in the cave wall behind. I could block some of the rifle and regular blaster shots with my lightsaber, but I had to move to keep ahead of the laser cannon.

Maybe I had come the wrong way. But there was no going back to the cave. Not to hide, not to find a different route. My job was to escape. Not to die.

But I had to make sure they didn’t blow up my ride before I could catch it. I ran back behind the mounted cannon. I had to unconsciously let the Force guide my self-defense, either dodging laser shots or deflecting them as I ran, then trying to cut down the clone troopers as I ran into them, keeping track of a hundred things at once. I heard them yell as they went under my blade, I just had to tell myself don’t think about it, don’t think about it. 

Too many laser shots that should have ended me singed my tunic or hair or pants instead or just whizzed past some part of my body. I had to cut the guys controlling the mounted cannon pretty badly, I saw at least one severed arm. I didn’t look at their faces, I didn’t want to see if any of the clones I hurt were ones that I knew. But I cut the cannon barrel right down the middle. There was a small explosion and I fell back. 

I landed on my back and rolled over. My lightsaber had landed on the ground not quite a meter away. I was about to grab it with the Force when a stray blaster shot hit it, right on the center. The clone must have gotten an idea and started to shoot it repeatedly until it had blown into pieces. 

I glimpsed the destruction of my lightsaber as I ran for the open cockpit of the N-1 starfighter. A clone tried to tackle me on the way, but I threw him off. Another approaching clone got a Force push. A small assist from the Force, and I was able to jump into the fighter. I hit the power button and the lid closed over me. The engine and shields hummed to life--with the shields up nothing smaller than a small cannon could get me. So there was that. I relaxed a tad.

While I’d been getting shot at and making my dramatic escape, there had been a droid sitting in the astromech socket of the starfighter watching everything. Now it beeped at me, Why are they shooting at you?

“I’d like to know why they’re shooting at me, too. Just get me out of here.” 

You do realize that you’re stealing Naboo royal property, right?

“I think your people will understand. If not, I have a friend in the senate who will vouch for me.” Not that I thought that Senator Amidala owed me any favors, but it was a small comfort to tell myself that she’d help me sort it out if I lived through this.


	3. Chapter 3

The droid’s number was R17-M3. From what I had glimpsed of him, he had some red paint on his dome. He helped to get the little fighter’s systems up and going while I piloted the ship. I lifted it above the valley floor and then steered it away from the planet’s surface. Luckily nothing big shot at us while we were ascending. 

But when we got to space, there were problems. Nish and I had come with a fleet of three battlecruisers. Thinking that what had just happened on the ground was an isolated incident, I contacted the flagship, the Trustee. “Can anyone hear me? This is Jedi Commander Ereh Saw Yzil. I’m in the--”

Get out of the way! M3 beeped. I saw two laser shots coming right at me. I hit the thrusters and swerved aside just in time. 

“That was from our ship!” I said to the droid.

They’re still firing!

More laser cannon shots came from the sides of the Trustee. I pressed down on the speed controls of the N-1 to get out of their range. I thought maybe the Trustee was drifting towards me. There was no way this little fighter could stand up to firepower like that. 

You need to keep running, I felt the Force nudging me. Get out of here, get as far away as you can. I remembered Nish dying in the tunnel. I still had his blood on my hands--his blood, and the blood of some of our clone troopers. 

“M3, how fast can we jump to hyperspace?” I asked the droid.

As soon as I can make the calculations. Where do you want to go?

“I want to get as far away from here as possible,” I said. “That’s what my master wanted.”

Maybe we could go hide in the Outer Rim until we find out what’s going on.

“The Outer Rim? I like that. Okay, where at?”

That’s gonna have to wait, actually. We’ve got bigger problems.

Bigger problems indeed. The fighter bay of the Trustee had opened and let out a group of ARC-170s. They were all flying towards me. I sensed their hostile intentions. I gunned it. They came racing after me and started shooting.

“M3, patch me in to talk to those guys.” M3 opened a comm channel. “Pilots, stand down, this is Commander Ereh Saw Yzil. I’m ordering you to cease firing at once.”

“No, you stand down, Jedi!” Someone answered. Loop? “You’re wanted for high treason against the Republic. You either surrender or you can get blown out of the sky.” The closest fighter was right on my heel and firing. I had to do a lot of swerving to dodge the shots.

“Loop, it’s me, Yzil! I haven’t done anything!”

“Stand down, Jedi!”

It was like talking to a completely different person. 

I didn’t have time to try and reason with him. I had to escape. I banked my fighter off to the left. Loop followed me, and so did all the rest of the squadron that had come--my squadron! This is supposed to be my squadron!

“Betrayed the Republic? What did he mean by that?” I asked the droid, trying to distract myself. 

You want me to check the HoloNet news for you?

“Yeah, I’m sure now is a great time for that.”

The droid gave a few beeps of nervous laughter. I can’t get a signal right now, actually.

I tried everything to shake off the clone pilots, every maneuver Loop and Bracket had taught me that I could think of, flying straight to one side and then making sharp turns, doubling back. There were plenty of near misses. I tried to tell myself it was just another dogfight. But I couldn’t shake off the knowledge that this time I was the enemy ship.   
I wasn’t going to shoot back unless I absolutely had to. I already had enough blood on my hands.

“M3, how’s that hyperspace coming?”

I’m trying to keep your stabilizers online, but when I get a minute, it’ll be ready.

Seemed like I didn’t have a choice. “You want me to buy you some time?” I turned directly around to face the clone squadron.

No that’s not what I meant!

“Trust me on this.” I aimed for one of the ARC fighters. I didn’t target the vital organs of the vessel, but just its guns. The first few shots missed and I had to swerve back around. 

Are you crazy?

“They’re shooting at me, I’m sure somebody is!” I fired again. The portside cannons of one of the fighters blew off. The fighter veered off course. I came back to do some more damage to another fighter. I was aiming for their cannons again, only this time they were firing back at me and I missed my target--the ARC fighter blew up. 

“Well, now I really need to avoid going near any civilized systems,” I said to M3.

Copy that, said the droid. I’ve got coordinates set for somewhere in Separatist space.

“Ooh, Separatists, I’ll bet they’ll be helpful.”

Just get out of their range so we can make the jump.

Right. There were still eight of those ARC fighters after me. I banked my fighter around and pointed the nose of my fighter out towards open space. I got fired on and had to swerve back and forth. One shot grazed one of my jet engines--perhaps more than grazed it.

“Can we still fly with that?”

I’ve seen fighters make it through hyperspace on worse, but be careful.

“Define worse.” There was no getting away from the clone fighters in the direction I was going, so I turned sharply to the right and headed the opposite direction. “Prepare the thrusters.” M3 made the final adjustments. The stars blurred past and we were in hyperspace, away from the clone fighters. 

I’d passed the first hurdle.


	4. Chapter 4

I took a few moments to catch my breath. I reviewed quickly what had just happened. Our clone troopers had turned on us. They had killed my master. I had just made a bloody and violent escape. 

The small cockpit of a fighter in the middle of hyperspace wasn’t exactly the best place to process those events completely. Or my feelings. The need to get somewhere safe first was more pressing. I needed someplace roomier to relax.

The blood on my hands was sticky. Right then it just felt gross.

“So you said we’re going into Separatist Space? Where at?”

Tamando Bika. I think. It’s pretty remote, but you should eventually make your way back to civilization and find out what’s going on. 

“You think this was just our clone troopers?”

It could be, easily.

But I remembered my master’s dying words in the cave, to run as far away as possible. If there had been somewhere to go to get help, he would have said so, probably. Or the Force would tell me. I meditated. The way my master had been speaking when he had been dying, he had felt that there was nowhere safe to go. Nowhere. But that made no sense.   
Could mean the entire clone army had turned? Impossible. Loop had mentioned something about the Jedi betraying the Republic. It couldn’t be. And even if it was, Nish and I were far away from wherever it was happening. Why did that affect us?

I was just speculating, but that was where my train of thought lead me. Something was terribly wrong. It was too dangerous to contact anyone for help. I was on my own. And I had to get away. 

If the war was ending, though, it would be a matter of time before the Republic entered Separatist territories. And they would be looking for me. Separatist Space might not be far enough.

Worry about that later, I told myself. This place M3 had mentioned would be a good place to start. “So this Tamando Bika, how far is it?”

The hyperspace trip will take about twelve hours.

“Twelve hours? Suppose we could pull over for a restroom break on the way?”

R17-M3 replied sheepishly, I actually didn’t really think about that when I picked the destination. I just knew you wanted to get somewhere far away. But, granted, we were being attacked while I made that decision. 

“Well, a few parsecs into Separatist space is far enough. And we’ll keep going farther if we have to. How are we on fuel?”

Fuel is at about half a tank. Should be enough to get us to our destination. 

“Life support systems?”

Already set for a long journey.

“And our battle damage?”

The port-side engine took a small hit. It’s under control for now. You should get that looked at if you get the chance.

The thing to do, then, while I was traveling through hyperspace, was to get some sleep. But it’s not like these little starfighters are built for optimal comfort, though. Even these elegant Naboo models were still built for battle. So no reclining seats. No onboard restrooms. No blankets. And did I mention that the little cockpit is cold? That’s why those Naboo pilots wear those long robes even if they’re not very practical for battle. All I was wearing was my singed tunic and pants. The seat was less than squishy. And I couldn’t turn myself sideways. I had to sit up with my eyes closed or else stare at hyperspace rushing past me. After a while, I was able to keep my eyes shut consistently. After what felt like forever I was able to doze off. 

I woke up in the middle of hyperspace some time later. We had been going for about three hours. I was hungry and thirsty. I needed to pee. I had a crick in my neck. I didn’t think I would be able to fall back asleep. I did, however, although as I drifted off again I was having thoughts of what it would be like to drift through space in a tiny starfighter forever without my bodily needs being met. 

The next thing I knew, there were several cockpit alarms going off, and M3 was beeping for me to wake up. 

You need to pull us out of hyperspace. NOW.

“Huh? What?”

I said pull out of hyperspace! We’ve got problems!

What problems?

I made an error in our navigational route and we’re about to run into something. And the damaged jet engine is acting up.

I grabbed the controls and banked out of hyperspace. As the starfighter returned to normal space, it shuddered and rocked. I was fully aware of the alarms indicating that the port-side turbo engine was under stress. When I looked at it, it was smoking. 

“Not good.” That was when I saw what was in space beyond us. The stars themselves were stretched and warped towards a single heap, a knot of darkness that made everything around it look bigger and brighter. 

“What’s that?” I asked, alarmed.

That would be an astronomical anomaly known as a black hole. 

“Where are we?”

Don’t ask me! I’ve lost power on the navigational computer. Last time I checked we were on the frontier of Separatist territory but that’s all I know.

“That’s not very helpful.”

We need to get out of here.

“I know.”

The starfighter was coasting--I had yet to turn the controls back on. I regretted at the moment not checking for myself the coordinates M3 had set. But I was about to regret it even more. I started to feel the ship jerk and tug off towards the left.

“What is that?”

That’s the black hole’s gravitational field! You got too close!

I grabbed the controls. The black hole was tugging at the ship, trying to bring it closer--not of its own intent but because of its nature. It was sliding towards the black hole. Like a glass on a table getting knocked off falls to the floor. 

Getting out of that black hole should have been easy. But that darned portside engine--with that damaged the fighter only had two-thirds of its full power.

“Can you get the forward controls back online, M3?”

I’m trying, I’m trying!

We were slowly drifting towards the black hole. The engines on my fighter chugged to life every so often to give us some forward motion, but that only made us drift around it at an angle. It would only be a matter of moments before the black hole began to rip my spacecraft apart. And then when I was dead from being exposed to outer space, rip my dead body apart. 

It was a frustrating thought. Yes, there are black holes in my home galaxy, but of course people avoid them. Because common sense. When your ship is damaged and you’ve come out of hyperspace at just the wrong spot, however, you might not have much choice in the matter. 

Did I really come all this way just to be torn up by a black hole?

Mind you, I hadn’t given up yet. I was still trying to get the little starfighter to move forward and out of the black hole’s gravitational field. And that was burning up gas quickly.   
I tried to use the Force. I willed the engines to repair themselves. I willed the jet engine to turn itself back on. I didn’t know the means, I just needed it to happen. I need to get out of the black hole. Master Nish didn’t mean this to be my fate. But nothing happened.

I was looking out the window at what would apparently be my doom when I noticed another detail about the space outside. 

It looked like a ripple in the spacetime fabric the way the hole itself looked like a stretch, the stars bent around a horizontal line rather than a circle.

I had an inkling of insight from the Force. 

“M3, do you see that bend in space, stretching outside the hole?”

Yes, I detect that. It’s a gravitational rip of some kind. It can bring together or break apart different places in space--but my files don’t have much more info about that.”   
“I don’t know anything about it either. But is it less likely to kill me?”

Yeah. It could be.

“I feel like I’d rather go over that rip than into the hole.” I hit the forward controls. I thought maybe it would be easier to get around from within that gravitational sink trap than to try and get out of it. It was actually much harder, like wading through a pool while lead weights are tied to your legs. 

“M3, divert all power to the thrusters. We’ve got to get away from the black hole and over to the rip!”

That could take more energy than we’ve got fuel for!

“Just do what you have to!” Alright, time to really use the Force. Feel it, don’t think. I reached out around me to feel what I needed to happen. I needed to get this tiny spaceship, with me and the droid included, out of the black hole’s gravitational well, and then climb into the rip connected to it and see if there was a way out of it. I turned my starfighter sideways and continued to move forward. The black hole kept tugging back. I used the Force to give me strength to hold onto the controls, to stretch out the fuel burning in the engine, to propel the ship forward. Slowly, painstakingly, the starfighter veered away from the black hole and towards the gravitational rip. The rip began to glow, first a faint green line and then a purple haze around it. 

It’s working! It’s working! Whatever you’re doing, little Jedi, keep doing it!

The grip of the black hole slowly eased. But then we fell forward into the rip. It was like climbing up the middle of a two-sided sink from one side and then falling down into the other. The ship slid, and then it hit something, I guess the middle of the rip, and then it spun. There was light like we were in the middle of an explosion, mostly gold with some purple and green, I thought I was going to go blind. I rocked around the inside of my cockpit. R17-M3 moaned as he held on for dear life. 

And then it was over. When we came to rest we were drifting backwards. 

“We did it,” I said with relief. “We did it.”

Made it...made it…

“M3, are you okay?”

No...damaged. Took a lot of me...Navigation’s completely gone. No idea where we are. 

I checked the other systems monitors in the cockpit. The engine was barely functioning. The hyperdrive was completely shot. The fuel level on the gauge was hovering above empty--I thought it would have been less. Life support systems, minimal--I had barely enough fresh air to last me a few more hours. Astromech support: critical damage to major systems, drained battery. 

We needed to land, and soon.


	5. Chapter 5

The question was, where to land. We had no idea where we were and there was no way of telling. And would we have enough fuel to get to the nearest habitable planet, much less a technologically advanced one? 

While I was reflecting on how not-familiar I was with the Separatist territories of the galaxy, an alarm began going off on the panel. Friendly reminder that this is urgent. 

We could easily die out here in the middle of outer space. I could find a certain wire to pull or ask M3 if there was a way to get the ship to self-destruct. Just get it over with.

But I’m not supposed to die out here.

Okay, then how do I live?

There was one impression I had from the Force. It came to my mind as a single word.

Trust.

“We have to find an inhabited planet around here somewhere,” I said. That was the first step. 

And then what? The droid asked me.

“I dunno, try to find--” I wanted to say a ride back to where we came from, but I realized that that might not be possible. “--somewhere to go,” I finished.

All I could think of at that moment was my master’s dead body, lying in a cave on a planet that I had now put reasonable distance behind. 

“We need to go forward.”

“Which way forward?”

I needed a moment to think, to brush aside the fresh images of smashing through that space rip, to put away the confusion at what had happened on Shent. I connected my mind to the Force, and to what I had learned from my teachers at the Jedi Temple and from Master Phish Nish. The universe is FULL of life, I knew that. One of those billions of stars surrounding us had to have at least one hospitable planet orbiting it. 

The life-sensing technology onboard this spacecraft was now useless.

I reached out with the Force. And I found it. One of the small yellow stars off in the distance. Off to the left of where I was currently facing. That star would be our chance for survival.

“I think I’ve found something. With the Force,” I said to the droid. “I hope it’s close.” I pressed the accelerator. The jets sputtered to life and then burned steadily. I turned a few degrees to the left and then went straight. 

I don’t know where I lost my main Force abilities. It may have been as we traveled that last few thousand lightyears away from that rip in the spacetime fabric. I wasn’t paying attention to it, I was just going where it was saying I should go. I had to pick out the star visually with my eyes a few times before I could see it steadily in front of me. All the while as I was driving the emergency lights and gauge warnings were blinking at me. R17-M3 and I made what adjustments we could, but I mostly concentrated on driving. “Do whatever it takes to keep us moving forward,” I encouraged the droid.

I’m so thankful that I didn’t have to make that journey across space alone.

The star I picked out finally distanced itself from the other stars that were in sight. I’m sure there were lots of beautiful nebulae and clusters that I passed but I was more worried about getting to my destination. And it was an unremarkable yellow star at first appearance. Then as we got closer we came through an outer orbital shell of solid debris and comets, the first sure signs of a solar system. That was a huge relief. I slowed my speed so that we could pass through in safety. We passed over an outer ring of asteroids. Then we flew through an empty patch--maybe saw a large gas planet off to the right--and then I flew in an arc above a smaller asteroid ring. Now in the interior of this solar system we had a chance of finding a hospitable planet.

“M3, how do our systems look for landing?” No answer. “M3?” I hit the droid connection button. I thought that it had given out. But no, it was the droid himself.

Brzz...beeoop...system...landing...gear...offline...rrrp…

“M3! Come on, buddy, stay with me! We’re almost there. There should be a planet right around here somewhere.” I looked up and there it was. It was mostly blue and white--that had to be water and clouds, right?--and I could see some green and brown patches under the white. Clouds! Oceans! Continents! Off to one side was a single moon, a crescent sliver of light.

“We should be running across their communications satellites about now,” I mused.

Be...careful...if they’re looking for you…

“I know.” I saw one satellite drifting to my left--a really primitive affair with big solar panel wings. 

“M3, are you okay?”

Mmmmm

“We should probably be slowing down now.”

Slow...down.

“Yes, that’s it, slow down the ship for landing,” I said. 

Commencing...landing… M3 may have started the landing functions but he didn’t get very far before he started whirring and humming and crunching.

“M3, come on, you can do this!”

I was terrified to lose him. Most everyone in our galaxy has basic mechanical skills, but repairing droids was not something I specialized in. If M3 broke down, I would not be able to fix him. 

Now you’ve gone and done it, I rebuked myself. Getting attached to him. Ugh, no, concentrate! You’ll just have to go it alone. I started switching on and adjusting some of the controls for landing.

As we got closer to the planet, I could see lights on the darker side denoting cities. 

Don’t go near the cities, the Force told me.

What?

Don’t go near the cities. Stay in the dark areas.

But where will I go?

Trust.

Some of the landing controls weren’t functioning, and now my steering was starting to not respond. So I didn’t have much say anyway over where I landed. But I pointed the nose of my ship the best I could towards the dark center of one of the continents. I could see the lights of some satellites around us as we entered orbit, but they drifted away from us.  
The sky where I was hoping to land was clear. If I had been thinking I would have picked a spot with more cloud cover, but as it was I knew I was already in for a bumpy landing. The vessel shook as we entered the atmosphere. Then the jet engines started burning from the outside--both of them--and the wings began to bend backward. Suddenly I was seeing flames over my cockpit. 

“M3!” I shouted. “M3 can you do anything?” I had never been in a landing this uncontrolled before. There probably wasn’t anything the droid could do to ease the descent. He was burning up with the rest of the ship at that point. 

The inside of my cockpit began smoking. One of the panels exploded open and flames sputtered out. Then I felt something sharp and painful poking through my boot. I smelled burning rubber and cloth and wires all at once.

There was a great shudder, and one of the jet engines broke away from the ship. The starfighter began to spin around in hopeless circles. All I could do was sit back. I braced for the rest of the thing to just explode and end me with it. 

Trust. 

The other jet engine broke off. It was just me and the cockpit and whatever the remains were of M3 at that point. I was spinning every which way, and my clothes were burning. Why wasn’t I dead yet?

Trust.

And then, impact. A crash, and then a flip, and then a gouging into the ground, and then a final explosion behind me. I broke through the glass of the cockpit and fell onto hard ground. I passed out. I don’t know how long I was out for, but it wasn’t very long. It may have been only moments, or else I would have burned to death with the rest of the ship.

I awoke coughing. I could feel cool air around me, but I was lying on the ground looking at a pillar of smoke blowing over me.

I was lying there for what felt like a long time. I slowly turned onto my belly, then propped myself up on my elbows and knees--every part of my body was bruised and cut. There were huge patches on my arms and legs where my clothing had been burned through and the skin underneath had been fried, even through my boots. I sat up slowly, looking at the wreck. The jet engines were gone, I saw a single shape slowly being turned black by the fire. I rose to my feet slowly. I took a few steps towards the ship, thinking I would see what was left of the inside of the cockpit. And then I fell. And I passed out again.


	6. Chapter 6

I can imagine what the scene was like at the home of George and Jean Bridger. George was in his recliner, reading the newspaper. Jean was seated on the couch, crocheting a baby blanket for her niece. Their dog Mag, a big German shepherd, was lying next to George’s chair when suddenly she perked her ears up. The dog’s head slowly moved around the room. Jean watched her, thought she heard the dog sniffing. Then the dog whined. George looked up momentarily from his paper.

Then they heard the noise. A roaring sound. Followed by a loud crashing and breaking. The noise was in the distance, but loud enough to make them wonder what it was.

George pulled back his recliner, and then he stood up to look out the living room window. He saw a ball of flame and smoke out in the distance. 

Jean got up to join him. “Does that look like it’s on our property?”

“Yeah, most likely,” said George. “Down in the south pasture.”

“What is it?” Jean asked him.  
“I don’t know,” said George, replacing the blinds. “But I’m not going to let it start a wildfire. Go turn on the lights.” George put his boots on. Then he got his baseball cap and truck keys. Mag followed him around the house, but when Jean and George went outside, George told her to stay put. Mag laid down to sulk in the doorway. 

Jean and George went to their barn and rolled several water-drums and a hose into the back of their pickup. Jean also checked on the horses, to make sure they were not too frightened by the noise and the fire. Then they drove in the pickup out to the south pasture. George parked the pickup with the headlights facing the wrecked spacecraft being engulfed in flames--and on me. I must have been too dazed for the brief time I was awake to hear them coming. 

Luckily I was a couple yards away from the actual wreck and they could get to me safely. George checked out the fire coming from the wreck and, deciding that it wasn’t an immediate threat to the dry weeds in the vicinity, helped Jean carry me to the truck. They drove me back to the house and got me into Jean’s car. Jean drove me to the medical center in Moab while George went back to the south pasture to put out the fire. 

I faintly remember being carried into the truck by two people. The next thing I remember is being placed on a bed, my clothes stripped off and my burns being treated--I had a few bad burns on my arms but my legs were covered with huge, angry welts that hurt, hurt, hurt. They stuck an IV tube into my arm. I remember wondering why they didn’t put me in a bacta tank. I was in and out of consciousness for a while. Somewhere in there I had my first sight of the woman who had brought me there: wearing a black tank top, with graying hair pulled in a high ponytail, her entire figure saggy and lined, but a look of concern on her face. 

I was unconscious for most of the night and for a good part of the day. The next afternoon I woke, feeling rested but stiff and hurting all over. I had bandages all up and down my arms and legs. And on my feet. I had two short breathing tubes up my nostrils. I was wearing a thin hospital gown. The woman in the sleeveless black top was seated next to my bed. We acknowledged each other with brief eye contact. She was using yarn and a needle to knot something together in her hands. I was having difficulty breathing and I would cough occasionally. I kind of lolled my head back and forth for several long minutes, not liking the fact that I couldn’t move, trying to bring my eyes into focus as I stared around the room. The walls were white and undecorated except for a framed print on the wall of some abstract subject. There was a small rack of machines beside the bed monitoring my vitals but no medical droid. Odd. 

“You about decided you want to wake up?” the woman said to me. 

“Yeah,” I moaned. 

She paused. “You can understand me?”

I nodded. “You speak Basic? That’s nice.”

“Well...it’s English, more or less we call it here.”

“Where am I?”

“You’re at the regional medical center in Moab. Lucky for you the doctors decided they didn’t need to fly you to Phoenix or Salt Lake for more treatment. You’re going to be in recovery for a while, though.” The woman then scooted her chair closer to me. “My name is Jean Bridger.”

“Did you save me?”

“My husband George and I did, yes. You landed in our field. You were hurt, so we brought you here to be fixed up.”

“Thank you.” 

“Not a problem.” Jean Bridger leaned herself close to my ear. “Did you come in that spaceship that crashed?” She spoke in a very low whisper.

“Yes.”

“You’re on the planet Earth. Do you know where that is?”

“No. Never heard of it,” I said. 

“Shh! Listen carefully: we haven’t made contact with people on other planets yet. If any authorities found out, they might place you under arrest or have you taken away for science. But you’ve been through a lot, honey. We’re going to protect you.”

“Okay.” Not the problem I was worried about.

“My husband and I have told the doctors that you are our niece, that you came to visit us and you were in a plane accident. And we’re calling you Emily.” 

I nodded. I understood the urgency of keeping my place of origin a secret. And I felt that I could trust this woman.

“I’ll call the nurse to come check you now. Don’t say a word about how you were injured or where you were from. Tell them how your injuries are feeling, nothing more.”

The woman reached for a cord by the head of the bed and pulled. Then she went back to her crochet. The yarn was rainbow-colored, and I liked how the colors shifted from one to the other as it was tied together in the object she was making.

“What are you making?” I asked her.

“A baby blanket, for my niece. She’s expecting.”

“Oh. That’s quite interesting, how you do that?” I coughed. “What is it called? The technique.”

“It’s crochet,” she said.

“Crochet. I like it, it’s pretty.”

“Thank you.” 

In a few minutes, a woman dressed in a loose uniform of blue cloth entered the room with a cart. 

“Well, well, look who’s awake,” she said. “Hi, Emily, I’m Teesha, I’m your nurse.” The instruments she used to check my vitals with were foreign to me. She asked me to rate my pain on a scale from one to ten, I told her a seven. I was feeling sort of numb and immobile from the pain medicine but not really pain-free.

“How old are you?” Teesha asked me.

“Sixteen,” I replied. I had been six standard years old when I had been brought to the Jedi temple, and that had been ten standard years ago. But of course the nurse didn’t need to know all that.

I reported to her that I couldn’t breathe very well. She prodded the wrappings on my arms and legs and asked me how the burns underneath them felt. With some difficulty, I was able to sit up in my bed. Teesha and Jean both helped me to stand up and walk across the room to the little lavatory attached to the hospital room. It hurt my dignity a little to have to be helped to use the strange toilet, but at least that first time I needed the help. And that’s all I’m saying on the subject. I was helped back to my bed and Teesha left the room with her cart, telling us that a doctor would be in to see me. 

The doctor who came was a tall, tanned man with not much hair on his head named Doctor Walker, and he wore a long white coat. He had me sit up and breathe while he prodded my chest with a device called a stethoscope. After that he examined my bandaged burns, he even unwrapped some of the ones on my legs. He reported that I was suffering from mild dehydration, shock, and smoke inhalation as well as the burns. Doctor Walker told Jean that he would give me a medicine for my lungs and that they would continue to give me IV fluids for the dehydration overnight, but I would be able to go home with Jean the next morning. Jean would care for my burns at her home. 

“Now you said she was in a plane accident?” Doctor Walker asked Jean.

“Yes. Her guardian in Colorado was flying her here in a chartered plane. It crashed on our property. The pilot is dead, the police have already taken the body.” Jean was technically lying, but if you counted the droid, I actually hadn’t come alone.

“Well, you’re lucky she made it onto your property,” the doctor laughed.

“Yes, but I still think it would’ve been better if they had crashed by the airport instead.” Jean kept her eyes on her crocheting.

After the doctor left, another member of the medical staff in a loose uniform, this time gray, brought a tray with food on it. It was all liquids, soup and gelatin and juice, all specially made to help my dehydration. The bed I was on, it turned out, was motorized, and Jean helped me to sit it up. My left hand was bandaged but not my right, so I didn’t have difficulty holding the food containers. I wanted to eat something solid, but I didn’t complain. It seemed like only a few hours ago I had been eating lunch rations with the clones. How long had I been in space? Not even half a day, hours-wise. But I had been through a lot, I reflected, escaping from the clone pilots and then getting out of that black hole. And then the crash. I remembered what had happened back on Shent, I just didn’t feel sad or anxious about it. My memories of the crash were the most recent. The physical pain was what hurt me most. 

Jean didn’t speak to me while I was eating. The food was taken away when I finished it. Then Teesha came with another equipment tray, and she fixed my IV and attached a different medicine to it. She then gave me an inhaling device, and I breathed in the medicine attached for my lungs. Then Jean laid the bed flat again so I could sleep. I slept for an hour or so. When I woke up, someone was in the room with Jean, talking quietly. He was a tall man, as overweight and saggy as Jean was, wearing a red plaid shirt and faded blue denim pants, and on his head was a large, oddly-shaped hat with a wide brim.

“Well, I think she’s starting to come around,” the man said when he noticed me opening my eyes.

“How are you feeling?” Jean asked me.

“I should be up for a little conversation,” I told her.

The man leaned forward and held out his hand for me to shake. “I’m George Bridger,” he said to me. He had a broad, kind smile. I liked it.

“How much of my ship made it?” I asked him.

“There’s not much left. All broken and burned up. But it’s not on fire anymore, though. Still smoking, but no more flames. I was able to douse the surrounding grass so it wouldn’t ignite, so no wildfire complications either. I couldn’t say if any other parts landed in our fields or nearby.”

I nodded to him. “I didn’t think I’d be able to salvage it. Most of it broke up when I was entering your atmosphere.”

“That’s too bad,” said George. He removed his hat. His hair was thin and gray, and the scalp underneath was red from the sun. “Do you have any way of getting back to where you came from?”

“No,” I said. “But I don’t need any. I’m on the run. There are people trying to kill me.”

George nodded.

Jean said, “Are any of those people following you?”

“No, I don’t think so,” I said. I laid back down and thought. “I don’t think anyone followed me...I got as far as this black hole, and then I got caught in its gravity. I was able to escape by flying into a rift in space. I don’t think anyone could have followed me from there. What did you say this planet was called again?” 

“Earth.”

“Earth...no I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it. I must be in some part of the galaxy people don’t come to that often. If I’m that far away, then I guess I’m safe. Is it a good place to live?”

Jean smiled while George laughed. “Oh, very,” said George. “Jean and I live on a livestock ranch. Six thousand acres of desert and red rock and sage grass, and the cows are fat and happy.”

“Some of the governments on this planet could use some common sense,” said Jean.

“I’ve seen my share of governments, ma’am,” I told her.

“We’d be more than happy to give you a home with us, if you wanted,” George said to me. “How old did you say she was, Jean?”

“Sixteen.”

“I’m sixteen,” I said to him.

“Yes, well, in our society most kids don’t go out on their own until they’re eighteen. So you could stay with us for a year or two, do what you had to to get ready to go out in the world. We have a comfortable house and some horses for riding. You wouldn’t get out much, but we’ll keep you safe. Secrets and all.”

“That sounds fine with me,” I said. “I’m willing to work for you, if you need it.” Master Nish had always taught me that I needed to earn or repay whatever hospitality I was offered.

“You don’t need to do anything for us,” said Jean.

“Oh, Jean, let her.” George patted his wife’s hand. “It’ll be good for her.”

“We won’t make you work for anything,” said Jean. “At least not until your injuries are better.”

“Right.”

“But I’ll imagine when you get back there you’ll want to see whatever’s left of your spaceship.”

“I do,” I said.

“We’ll do that tomorrow, then, after we bring you home,” said George. “And then you can rest for a few days, until you’re healed up. You mind us calling you Emily?”

“Not at all,” I told them. “I don’t think you’d understand my real name. Thank you. Thank you for your kindness.”

“It’s not a problem,” said George. “We’re happy to help anyone out. We don’t care where they’re from.”

“So can you tell us what happened, about what brought you here?” Jean asked me.

I wasn’t prepared for that question. I thought about it for a moment. There was actually a lot to explain--about the Jedi, about the Clones and the Clone War. And then there was the fact that I didn’t know why the clones had turned on us.

I felt a pang as I remembered that my master was dead.

“I don’t think I want to,” I said. “There’s a lot...there’s a lot that even I don’t understand. Can it wait?”

George and Jean nodded. “We understand,” said George. “In fact we’ll be fine if you never even say anything.”

“But when you need to talk, we’re here to listen,” said Jean.

George asked if he and Jean could return to their home for the night. I told them I didn’t mind. So they said goodbye to me and turned out the light. I slept for the rest of the evening and until the next morning. Teesha came once to check on my medicines and have me use the inhaler.

The next morning, Jean Bridger returned early. She brought me some clothes that she had bought at a secondhand store, a pair of jeans and a large shirt and some laced-up athletic shoes. All these items were large on me, but they fit over my bandages without squeezing my burns so I didn’t complain. I was strong enough to walk myself to the bathroom while carrying an IV pole, and for breakfast I ate solid food, scrambled eggs and some bacon. The inhaler had cleared out my lungs. Minus the burns, I was feeling passable. Jean stayed close to me as I walked down the hallway of the hospital, watching me in case I fell. 

The town that the hospital was in was surrounded by cliffs of slick red rocks. All of the vehicles drove on wheels. I was bewildered by the different sights but tried not to show it as Jean led me out to her car and drove me out of the town. 

A ten-minute drive away from the town, Jean turned off the main highway to a side road, and the side road led to a long dirt road that wound across a broad, rolling pasture. The distance was framed with cliffs and dramatic rock formations, and to the east were huge black mountains, so tall that their caps were bare rock. 

“Does your whole planet look like this?”

“No. This is in the middle of one of the more inhospitable regions. But this desert has some of the prettiest rock formations in the world. We’ve got natural arches and huge canyons in just a few minutes’ drive from our place. We’ll show you around when you’re better.”

I couldn’t help thinking, if I’m going to be on this planet unsupervised for a while, I might as well have some fun. But I wasn’t too excited by the thought. 

We turned off the dirt road onto another dirt road. This road crawled up a low hill to a small cluster of buildings. Most of them were barns and sheds. A tall quadruped with a long face eyed me suspiciously from a corral as I got out of Jean’s vehicle. The long, low building on the right was a house, painted pale blue like the sky but with dark blue shutters. Jean brought me into the house, and I had no sooner crossed the threshold than a hairy four-legged creature half my height came walking up to me. 

“Mag, get down, get off her,” Jean said as the animal badgered me for attention. “Do you want something to eat?” she asked me.

“No, I just want to rest some more,” I said, holding my hands back from the sniffing wet nose of their pet. 

Jean led me down the hallway of the house to a room at the back. There was a bed made with white sheets and a blue plaid comforter. “Make yourself at home, Emily,” she said. “If you need anything I’ll be in the kitchen or the workroom next door. She turned off the light and shut the door.

I heard their pet walking around in the hall outside the door. I took off the pants and the shoes I had been given, and I crawled under the bed covers to sleep. It was dark and quiet, and I found it a lot more relaxing than the hospital had been.


End file.
